Star Wars the Truce at Bakura - Kathy Tyers [115]
Nothing—not her habit of diplomacy or her fear of Wilek Nereus or even her deliverance from entechment—could entice her to thank him for murdering Luke Skywalker this way. And Senator Leia Organa, and all the Rebels who’d come to help Bakura. Once Bakura understood what had happened, Governor Nereus would need an Imperial legion to put down the resultant uprising … and thanks to the Alliance, he could not call down that legion. She ought to feel victorious.
Hollow desperation made her shiver. Luke had saved her from the Ssi-ruuk and their captive human, but she couldn’t help him in return. That disrupted the Balance of her life. She fingered her pendant and dared to think of the gravest extreme: civil war, long and bloody, Bakuran lives against Imperial technology, unless … perhaps … she and Eppie could rid Bakura of Wilek Nereus. She steeled herself to stay with him and hope for a chance.
Han didn’t need a cruiser’s threat board to know they were losing. He’d managed to gather several X-wings and an A-wing into a moderately effective formation, but no matter how he and his shipmates used the Falcon’s armaments, one arc at a time Commander Thanas closed a tight, classic globe. System patrol craft and TIE fighters hung in all directions, drawing Rebels out of the Dominant’s dead zone into tractor range. Though Commander Thanas’s damaged flagship drifted on minimal thrusters, its turbolaser batteries had already swung toward him. The Falcon’s power banks were all but exhausted. He needed to shut down all systems and let them recharge.
“All right, Leia,” he said over the comlink. “Admit it. That ‘bad feeling’ of yours was the smart side of the Force.” He feinted toward a TIE fighter. Its big brother, a carbon-streaked patrol craft, matched his vector. He backed off. “We’re all dead, every ship in the battle group, unless somebody comes up with something brilliant … and fast.”
Leia answered from the lower gun turret, “There must have been something we could’ve done.” She sprayed a weakening energy burst from her quad guns. “Some way we could have—”
“You’re dealing with Imperials. Every one that’s high up enough to give orders is only in it for number one.”
“We’re starting to leave Luke out of the equation,” she insisted again.
“Maybe he is out,” Han answered soberly. “Thanas’s drift vector is going to take him right past that Flutie cruiser.”
From the upper gun turret, Chewie roared angrily.
Something in the pattern in front of him sparked his memory of a gaming table long ago and far, far away. Something brilliant.… “But if we could take the Dominant, our fighters might be able to break out and scatter.”
Leia’s turret suddenly felt chilly. “Sure. How?”
“Look where that Imperial patrol craft’s hanging, the one about sixteen degrees north. If we dropped back about twenty degrees and rammed it, it’d squirt out of formation and hit the Dominant hard aft. The Falcon’s the only ship we’ve got left with enough mass to carry it off. Thanas deserves his behind cooked.”
“Carrack-class cruisers have their generators just aft of midline.”
“Exactly. Ka-boom.”
Leia felt strangely detached. “Count on you to try a carom shot. Can you get nav computer confirmation on that course?”
“Just did. With full power to front shields until the last possible moment, we could do it. Of course, hitting the patrol craft that hard would finish the Falcon.”
“Of course.” Leia tapped two fingers on her firing controls. Luke? she pleaded toward the drifting cruiser. She sensed nothing in return but a harried flicker. Busy.
She heard a soft click. “Listen up,” Han announced in a genuine general’s voice. “Form